No Air
by myloveriswriting
Summary: AU where Ben is half anodite and Kevin is the founder of omnitrix. It's just a simple introspection of this one-sided crush Ben has for Kevin (Cover Art drawn by Lingi-15)


**pairing:** ben ო kevin (unrequited)

 **notes:** i haven't watched this show in years, i'm catching up with omniverse now so please dismiss any loose ends that don't add up, hope you like it! ;) muah! xoxoxo

 **notes2:** the cover art i was inspired by is drawn by tumblr user lingi-15 (permission granted; thank you!) the idea came from her AU too, it's awesome!~ here's the link to the art: post/92998289885/i-always-wanted-to-draw-this-if-kevin

 **disclaimer:** i own nothing

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It was once in a full moon where Ben would reconsider Verdona's request.

And it wasn't long before until time became less like a social construct and more like an infinite, everlasting mechanism. He'd already lost his perception of how long it was since she had offered him this escape and contemplated, like perhaps it was for the better that he leave with his alien grandma to train on her planet. The sooner the better.

He was half Anodite, after all, so it made sense. Plus he'd be free from all the chaos, destruction, alien ambushes, and migraines he'd get from thinking too much about battle strategies. All the responsibility he has been forced to endure since.

He'd be free from those sleepless nights where he'd teach himself how to bend his mana as flexible as Charmcaster, Sunny, or Verdonas' to no avail. They had proper training from mentors and he hadn't. Sighing heavily, he thought himself as a pathetic excuse of a plumber. Accepting Verdona's request was just logical in this case, and all his life he's been nothing but reasonable.

The only tangible, irrational being that stopped him seemed to have attached himself onto his heartstrings pulling him in despite not knowing, it had him spiraling back to earth in surges of spacecraft speed and light, and that something- _someone_ was Kevin.

However, lately, Kevin hasn't been himself and Ben had taken notice, he always took notice of little things which prompted these unstable thoughts of his. Here, Kevin was more gaudy, arrogant, prideful, and consumed with all the fame and fortune after his secrets' been out. After a while, this indulgent nature became less cute and more vexing. While, more often than not, Ben would voice it to him of how his distracting, pretentious nature would kill them all. That only pissed Kevin off though.

He was so easy to bother if you'd push the right buttons. It's always been like that. Ever since that summer years ago, he never lost the chance to push those buttons if it meant life or death. His wavering hesitance at the age of ten when he first met Kevin was detrimental.

Back then. Kevin was, in essence, everything. He was fun, rules broken, badass, independent, and sometimes insanity all at once with not a care of consequence in the world. The polar opposite of Ben at the time. Ben figured he was attracted to his sort of exhilarating lifestyle for several reasons. Because he was an only child, he was sheltered by his parents with no siblings or friends to hang out with (besides Gwen who doesn't count because they were related). Even his grandpa kept a close watchful eye over him. It was suffocating.

But, that summer road trip was a fresh breath of air and life-changing; beginning with Kevin and him discovering the Omnitrix, and Ben eventually discovering his magic powers. Fighting aliens, running away, playing sumo slammers from dusk til dawn. It used to be a joy to wake up and await what troubles would cross their way today.

When Ben suggested that Kevin travel with him, Grandpa Max welcomed him. He had opened arms for Kevin in a way his father never could, and invited him as though he were his own son. Gwen, still stuck with one more dweeb, had liked (pitied) his presence and his technical skills for fixing.

Nevertheless, Kevin wasn't a constant, he was reckless, unstill, and ready to leave the shabby old trailer his Grandpa left doors open for him. But, there was also only one reason why he stayed around. And the only reason Ben didn't wish to know was because Gwen was there.

He was quite smitten with her back then, and... even now.

This made Ben roll his eyes to the back of his head at age ten and gag, fast-forward six years later and it gave his heart palpitations, heightened when Gwen didn't turn him down. It drained the color in his eyes, and suddenly he was stuck inbetween the confines of a black and white society.

He would resort to twiddling with plumber equipment whenever they gave public displays of affections to each other. The intimacy between the two had him biting his bleeding tongue and his heart might've died right there had he not excused himself to the restroom. That car had no air in it and he never calculated how much this affected him. Fortunately, no one was able to tell and thank god they never would.

Then, came the endless nightmares in nostalgic waves of that legarthic summer. Not the beginning or halfway through, but the end. The horror plastered on his face when Kevin lost control and tried to kill him and hunted him down like it was his fault he found the Omnitrix in the first Omnitrix was unable to be removed from the skin. Vilgax wanted to kill him, Ben wanted to save him (although all attempts were regarded futile). He remembers the lost kick to his stomach when he'd heard that Kevin had been locked up in the Null Void.

However, when it came down to it, there was nothing he could do. He had cried his eyes out in front of Grandpa Max to save him, cure him, because he wasn't a bad person initially. He was just under bad circumstances.

And all of sudden, Ben started hating the world for not caring. Harsh backlashed conversations with Gwen when she wasn't as moved as he was and teeth grinding to his grandpa who, all of sudden, began obeying plumber and intergalactic space laws that were set long before he met Kevin. It was relief to everyone else, and a betrayal to the core. Kevin had consumed his thoughts that summer and that was when Ben locked up his spell book. _Never again,_ a thought he had longed to instill.

 _He thought._

Everyone told him to forget. Forgive and forget. His mom, furious at Max for letting her son hang out with a "delinquent." Max, apologetic, for bringing them all into this plumber business of his. Gwen, sympathetic and soon apathetic, on the outside and inside respectively. It was the type of mindless dreaming that took Ben months to get over before he brought his grades down to the endless abyss.

Simple things in life wasn't so fun anymore and sumo slammers was just a game. The therapist his parents hired had called what he had "temporary" and that it be best that he avoid the opposite sex for a while. That summer, now, seemed like a bad dream, intangible, and out of his grasp.

Until now.

Now Kevin was back stronger, taller, and he wasn't trying to kill him this time; a matured Kevin. He still looked the same; scowling, moppy black hair, hardened eyes. The resemblance to his eleven year old self ended there. It was then Ben realized what it was his ten year old self hadn't been prepared for when he met Kevin. It was clearly a grave mistake to have met him.

He realized this when they had met by chance; after winning the soccer game with a medal to compliment his uniform, his uniform now muddy as an alien attacked the living lights out of his tired sore body. Then, the air sucked between his teeth and exhaling was suddenly impossible before the sight of an old friend that had just saved his ass with no contempt.

He had millenias, Verdona had told him, as an Anodite he'd live for years beyond earth's existence. Kevin though? He was a once in a millenia. And this attachment was never going away. He felt burning in his lungs at this revelation.

So, when Kevin asked he join with him, how could he say no?


End file.
